Taking place over 24 hours, a rich, beautiful and wilful woman from Paris is determined to seduce a peaceable musician in the country who appears uninterested in her considerable charms.

Félicia, a high-spirited society woman, one morning in the country crashes a borrowed Rolls Royce car into the 2CV of Gaspard, a placid cellist who is bringing up his young son and three nieces.

As he does not want to stay, full of drink and bravado she drives him erratically through the rain back to his house, where he tries to sober her up and, since she is soaked, puts her in a hot bath .

[2] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that "the maneuverings are mostly the tactics of coy moviemaking here involving several awful child actors, windshield wipers that comment on the action, a huge but gentle dog, a Siamese cat named Prudhomme, and endless little rages between the lovers that define their real affection...

Charm is the ingredient that is in singularly short supply in The Bear and the Doll, largely, I suspect, because Miss Bardot, once a sex kitten, now approaches middle age with all of the grace of a seasoned predator.